Imaginary Home Decor of a Lousy Decorator, and a new Serendipitously Harmonizing Quilt (and yes, a kit!)

As decorating goes – I can’t say I’ve ever been stellar at it. I tend to stumble upon things I like; bits and pieces really. I always feel a bit like I love odd things that are mostly random, don’t often go together, yet possess an intangible meaning I can’t always explain. Like umbrellas, for instance. I like them very much.

I can’t explain why I like umbrellas, but red ones are my favorite. Since I’ve never found the perfect real red umbrella, I carry a plain black one instead…hoping someday, maybe, I’ll find just the perfect red one.

I bought the above painting a number of years ago because I needed something to at least kind of match the green paint I had chosen to throw up on our bedroom walls when my husband was away one week, traveling for business. Those were what I call the olden days, before his job was being the brainy numbers guy for our shop. He traveled a good deal then while I stayed home with our littles. Every so often when he was away, I’d get a bee in my bonnet to do something big.

In case you’re wondering where you can find a list of the 5 mountains (almost) anyone can climb, I invite you to swing over to m2woman where I found this great photo of me (err, I mean…Imagination Me).

Usually my ‘somethings’ involved tackling more than conquering. I tended to reorganize closets or thoroughly vacuum the whole house (including trim). Occasionally, I’d pick a room to paint. Sometimes when I painted, I chose a good color. Other times (like that yellow sponge-painty gig I did in the foyer and all down the whole, long hallway) – let’s just say I knew the moment the paint was dry – I’d be repainting!

In the case of the Earthy Green I chose for our bedroom 4 years ago, my emotion about whether it was a great color or an awful one was kind of more grey than green, if you get my drift. In theory, it seems to me like a good color, this earthy, mossy green; but ever since I painted it – I’ve been on the fence. The thing is, I like it. It’s a nice…green. It’s just that because I’m not a stellar decorator, I second-guess myself. It’s also that I’ve struggled to find a way to pull the room together in a way that makes me NOT sit the fence about it. The painting was a good start. At the very least, the green is right. I also like how it makes me feel.

I like how it’s raining in there. Can you feel it?

Almost as much as I love the red umbrella that the girl is carrying – I love her blue hooded raincoat.

you didn’t even realize there was a hood on the raincoat, did you?

She must have chosen the coat in a quaint little shop somewhere; a perfect length for it to just cover the bottom of her most-often-worn skirt or dress (no, it’s definitely a skirt). In my own world, I never think far enough ahead to remember that I might need a mid-length coat that, just in case I’m ever anticipating walking alongside a river in the rain, I could just scoop it off the hook that hangs by the door (which doesn’t currently exist, but now I need to remember to get – a hook, I mean, to hang by the door for hanging a mid-length blue hooded raincoat I don’t have either), as I run out with my red umbrella in hand, in case it rains.

Near the painting, sits a coral chair. It’s crushed velvet, once belonged to my neighbor, and I completely love it.

It sort of matches the painting. Kind of.

I found this glob of coral on the painting over there by the bridge (that you hardly noticed, right?), therefore the chair works in the space, I’m thinking (but what if I’m just rationalizing?)

Did I mention I’m not much of a decorator? I’m a much better quilter, at least in my own head. Yes, that’s what I was intending to talk about here (because that’s usually what I’m talking about here, and I know that’s what everyone who comes here to read probably wants me to talk about…so I’ll just get to it.

Every quilt I make lately, my hub asks the same question:

Is it big enough to fit on our bed?

Usually I say no because I make lots of (quicker) lap quilts. Most recently though, I started pondering a project for Robin Pickens’ Dear Mum collection and I got to thinking that for some intangible-at-the-time reason, I might like to make it bed sized.

I like the green in the Dear Mum collection. It’s a nice sort of green. And did we talk about how much I love red? Oh wait – is that coral?

I’ve been staring at a pattern I’ve had in my stash for a long while by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic.

Designed for use with Brigitte’s Comma collection (which predates my love affair with Zen Chic fabrics because I was lost in the maternal bliss of raising 6 littles for what seems like an eternity), X & + has been waiting in my stash for just the right project.

I have this habit of falling in love with a pattern and then coveting it for eons as if it will self destruct if I use it before the perfect fabric collection reveals itself. The problem is that if I have any intention of sharing it here (and I’m using fabric we have in our shop) I darn well better be able to come up with at least a few copies for those that want to make it too (you see, I’ve got your back, don’t you worry).

Except, huh.

I’ll give you one guess where patterns sometimes go that have been around for a while…

Say it with me, friends: Out. Of. Print.

(unless I ask the right person…maybe)

Fast forward with me here for just a sec, while I take a chance, and start cutting.

Are you a fan of organizing happy little stacks as you cut your pieces? They inspire me and make me love the fabrics with which I’m creating even more. Can we talk about those sweet little bugs?

Speaking of sweet little bugs…

For those of you that may have missed this on my Instagram page – Sophie stashed a perfectly perfect ball of Aqua yarn into my carry-on as we were headed to Edinburgh, Scotland recently ( a long flight, which consequently produced a completed dress!). She’d sworn that JUST that aqua is JUST the same aqua of Dear Mum fabrics (she calls it ‘Robin’s Aqua’). While I wasn’t entirely convinced, upon discovering the evidence at Remnant Kings Fabric Store in Edinburgh, I gave her a nod, helped her up onto the bolt and snapped a photo as proof. A color-smart bunny right here, folks.

So, before YOUR brain self destructs in anticipation (or sheer boredom) – with the inspiration of some peculiarly familiar coral, the earthiest of greens, and (eureka) a particular blue Essex Linen to compliment the Robin’s Aqua and to blend with a certain mid-length hooded raincoat which hangs from a hook (which doesn’t exist by the door, but should…and will).

I love that it’s big enough for our bed and that especially…somehow…unexpectedly – it pulls the whole darn room together without even trying. Kit? Oh come on – you can scroll just a smidge more – get lost in the moment!

Pretend with me (as if you haven’t been already), that the painting is visible in this photo, and that the red rectangular pillow I found later in the living room is plopped right there by Sophie and her mouse friend, Meg. And maybe also pretend there’s something a little more amazing above the headboard there that’s better than that oddly small framed something that should feel more meaningful to me, but doesn’t. After all, as you all may recall, I’m not much of a decorator, Maybe that’s because I can imagine things where they could be, or might one day be.

(okay fine…it’s morning and I needed one more skim through this post before sharing it anyway…and there’s a thing called daylight and the panoramic setting on an iPhone…)

Even though I realize we could use more light in our room (or a lighter paint color, but I refuse to go there after all this), there’s something cozy, earthy and curl-up-with-a-good-book sort of pleasant about our newly harmonized space. It makes me want to live here. Wait – I do.

In case you wondered, before this post, it had not even occurred to me to be in search of something more meaningful for above that headboard, nor a hook, or a perfect blue raincoat. Now my quest has begun. Thank you.

I wish you happy quilting. Even more – happy imagining.

(one more scroll…can you make it?)

The pattern…out of print…still – BUT. We’ve been granted a special purchase opportunity of a limited quantity of printables of it. That means we’ve promised to only print a certain amount for KITS RIGHT HERE that we’ve made available in the shop. Once they’re gone, they’re gone (because fair is fair).

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